The powerful senses extend their psychological tentacles and occasionally get a octopus-grip on even advannced devotees who are close to escape from the dark waters of dulusion.
A note of warning is given to the smug and self-satisfied devotee who may have attained some spiritual advancement and a degree of self-control over his life and thus considers himself immune to the subtle lures of the senses. No one is actually safe from predatory senses- not even the nearly perfect wise man-until he has reached the final shelter of unbreakable union with spirit.
A devotee may long seperate himself from objects thgat excite temptation in the senses and thus rashly believes that their inner luring activity is gone. They quite likely to be merely dormant, hibernating with him, ready to spring into movement under a sudden contact of suitable circumstances.
No germ of evil, however seemingly insignificant, should be allowed to remain lurking within, growing and undetected. As contact with germs may not appear harmless at first because one's immune qualities hold them into check, so also a slight measure of evil may apparently be untroublesome when one's spiritual health is good and strong; but if in anyone the immune spiritual qualities become weakened, then the bacteria of evil are quickly aroused and invigorated, and quite overwhelm the vulnerable host.
Thus the wise man should introspect and find out whether his greed, sex temptation, love of physical beauty, desire for flattery, and so forth have actually slain by wisdom or whether they are only feigning their demise.
Even without the outward contact of specific objects, the five senses of knowledge(sight, hearing,smell,taste,touch) and the five executive powers(speech, hand and foot movement, sexual and excretory activities) may internally be excited by mere thought. For instance, a wise man trying to overcome a particuliar temptation not only must stay away from all stimulating occupations and people akin to his weakness but also must control his senses internally so they do not feed his mind with associated images that arise from the subconscious mind owing to it's picturizing power or to its memory of past sensual experences.
No Devotee should underestimate the formidable power of the subconscious, whose tentacles are far-reaching then those of the conscious mind.
Scorning the tinsel lumosity of sense objects, the God-united devotee focuses his thoughts on the ever joyus Spirit. His senses soon forsake their rebellion and obey him as their rightful sovereign.
Two things are required for a wise man. First he must withdraw his mind from the senses; secondly, he must keep the mind united with the Deity, yeilding only to the Supreme Temptation!
This outer and inner control makes the wisdom of the devotee unwavering-that is, not hovering between Divine and sensual pleasures.
The advanced Yogi finds his senses ever obedient, well trained in subservience to the better and finer joys of God-perception.
A man's intellect is not steady if he is the victim of self-indulgences. A sense slave's mind and judgement are persistenly clouded; he passes from one error to another, from one action to another, from one pitfall to another.
The sage of steady wisdom exercises good judgement in all decisions and actions, for his inner intuitive wisdom is ever united to the ominiscience of Spirit.
Source: Paramahansa Yogananda!
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